AREUEA Policy Forum

The AREUEA Policy Forum aims to build bridges between research and policy making in real estate and urban policy.

Panel Discussion: “Climate Risk and The Future of Property Insurance”

Click the link below to access the video recording of this Policy Forum.

Policy Forum Recorded Video

March 8, 2024 | 12:00pm - 1:00pm ET

• Moderator
  • Rachel Meltzer, Harvard University
• Panelists
• Carolyn Kousky, Associate VP, Economics and Policy Analysis, Environmental Defense Fund
• Ishita Sen, Harvard Business School, Harvard University
• Katherine Wagner, University of British Columbia
• Roy Wright, President and CEO, Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety 

Featured Papers

• ”Fifty Years of U.S. Natural Disaster Insurance Policy”
• ”When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets”

Additional Resources

Published papers:

• Boomhower, Judson (2023), “Adapting to Growing Wildfire Property Risk”, Science, 382, 638-41.

• Botzen, W. J. Woulter, Oliver Deschenes, and Mark Sanders (2019), “The Economic Impacts of Natural Disasters: A Review of Models and Empirical Studies”, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, 13(2), 167–88.

• Botzen, W.J. Woulter (2021), “Economics of Insurance Against Natural Disaster Risks”, Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. 

• Wagner, Katherine R H. 2022. "Adaptation and Adverse Selection in Markets for Natural Disaster Insurance." American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 14 (3): 380-421.

• Kunreuther, Howard, and Geoffrey Heal (2012), “Managing Catastrophic Risk”, NBER Working Paper No. 18136.

• Oh, Sangmin, Ishita Sen, and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva (2022), “Pricing of Climate Risk Insurance: Regulation and Cross-subsidies”.

• Sastry, Parinitha, 2022, “Who Bears Flood Risk? Evidence from Mortgage Markets in Florida”.  Available at https://ssrn.com/abstract=4306291 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4306291

• Taylor, Ried, Madeline Turland and Joakim A. Weil (2023), "Climate Change and the Regulation of a Crashing Insurance Market”.

• Wagner, Katherine, 2023. “Designing Insurance for Climate Change.”

Links:

Research institutes and reports

• https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2024/02/02/state-fiscal-debates-to-watch-in-2024-natural-disaster-risk Natural Disaster Risk: State budgets are increasingly shouldering the costs of more frequent and expensive weather events., Pew Trust, Feb 2, 2024.

• Bisnow Reports Podcast: Interview with Lockton’s Danielle Lombardo
• Bloomberg Big Take Podcast: Climate Disasters Fuel New US Housing Crisis
• https://earth.org/why-we-need-to-fix-disaster-insurance-markets/ Why We Need to Fix Disaster Insurance Markets this Year and How to Do It, Mar 4, 2024.
• https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/01/climate/climate-insurance-disasters-senate.html As Climate Shocks Grow, Lawmakers Investigate Insurers Fleeing Risky Areas, New York Times, Nov 1, 2023.
• https://bnnbreaking.com/finance-nav/state-insurers-brace-for-trillions-in-climate-risk-as-private-firms-retreat BNN, Nov 5, 2024.
• https://fortune.com/2023/10/31/four-insurers-leave-california-wildfire-risk-allstate-state-farm/   4 more insurers are leaving California after Allstate and State Farm cut back due to wildfire risk, Fortune, Oct 31, 2023.
• https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2024-home-insurance-real-estate-crisis/?sref=f6li3sg0 US Home Insurance, Real Estate Markets Teeter on Financial Crisis, Bloomberg, Mar 6, 2024